The respect of the MMA community is a tricky thing. Sometimes you can earn it simply by winning fights. Sometimes you can even earn it by losing them in a particular fashion. Sometimes you never really earn it, no matter what you do. In Chris Weidman’s case, a win over Vitor Belfort would mean a lot. It would solidify him as the true UFC middleweight champ, and it would probably also make his wins over Anderson Silva seem more legit in retrospect. Trouble is, the sword cuts the other way, too. Say Weidman loses to Belfort. Say he goes in there and gets knocked out by a spinning triple-axle head kick. Then I think a lot of people would view it as proof that his wins over Silva were more luck than skill. That would be unfortunate, not to mention straight-up wrong in my view, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen. Just one more reason why the Weidman-Belfort bout will be a high-stakes affair.

@benfowlkesMMA gsp & AS get healed up physically and mentally. .they fight on the new years card next year..how much does that interest you?

If you listen to the Co-Main Event Podcast (and if you don’t, what’s your problem?), you heard my co-host Chad Dundas make this prediction at the end this week’s show. I admit it hadn’t really occurred to me before he said it, mainly because a part of me really wants both Silva and Georges St-Pierre to call it quits before they stumble into the slow downward spiral phase of the sports legend life cycle. But honestly? Now that I’ve had a chance to think about it, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. They’re both at similar points in their careers. Neither would significantly harm his legacy by losing that fight. My only major concern is that one or both of them might not be truly ready to return to the cage that soon.

It’s less of a concern for GSP, who stepped away to find himself or whatever, and so who might soon discover that picking up girls in nightclubs isn’t going to fill the void within. But Silva? That man just broke his leg in the cage. I know his doctor just got on a UFC media call with a prognosis of six to nine months before he’d be physically capable of training again, but a) it’s not like he’ll be able to jump right into a full, intense fight camp right away, and b) that only takes into account the physical side of this thing. Go read Corey Hill’s remarks about what an injury like this can do to a fighter’s psyche. It’s true that Silva will probably get superior treatment in his convalescence, and he doesn’t have to worry about how he’ll pay his bills in the meantime, but that doesn’t mean he’ll ever forget what it was like to fall down screaming in pain on live TV. I’m not saying he’s automatically done due to psychological trauma. Clearly, Silva is an uncommon fighter in a lot of ways. But if he decided he’d rather not risk ending his night on the stretcher again, I don’t see who could blame him.

@benfowlkesMMA How in the blue hell is Weidman ranked higher than Anderson in the P4P table! Especially as both his wins are by default #TMB

How exactly is it a win by default when you punch the other guy in the face and he falls down? As for the rematch, I get that Weidman didn’t exactly beat Silva, but I don’t see how you can say he wasn’t in the process of beating him when Silva went down with an injury (which, to be fair, Weidman kind of caused). They spent a little less than 13 minutes in the cage together over the course of two fights, and I dare you to find a significant chunk in all that time where Silva was actually winning, or even doing much in the way of effective offense. Yes, there might always be various asterisks of weirdness attached to Weidman’s wins, but they aren’t wins by default. It’s time we all made our peace with that.

@benfowlkesMMA When will DW realize that international fans want to say "I seen Jon Jones fight live", rather than "I seen a ufc live"? #TMB

Maybe Dana White does realize that, but isn’t particularly moved by it. Consider the situation the UFC is in when it comes to international events. Once it takes its show on the road to Europe or Asia, it has to choose between making the event a primetime affair in the local market, thus relegating it to off-hours programming in North America, or making local fans show up at weird times just to accommodate the viewing public back in the UFC’s home country. It’s tried both over the years, with varying degrees of success. One of the reasons for the creation of the Fight Pass digital network, according to UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, is so the UFC can hold primetime events (also for the sake of primetime local TV deals) in foreign countries, but still find a way to air them live to fans back home.

For the UFC, the trick is making the fight cards good enough that locals will buy tickets, but not so good that it uses up its biggest superstars on six a.m. fight cards that fans in the U.S. won’t pay for. And, let’s be honest, when visiting markets that haven’t had a UFC event in a long time (possibly ever), it’s not that hard to throw together some second- or third-rate stuff and still move tickets. So maybe it’s not that the UFC doesn’t realize that fans in Singapore would rather see Jon Jones than Tarec Saffiedine. It’s that it knows they’ll settle for what they can get, especially if that means the fights will start at a reasonable hour.

@benfowlkesMMA how did Rousey get SOTN over Jim Miller? UFC throwing money at her so she won't leave? #tmb

As we’ve seen over and over again, a pretty good submission win by a superstar at or near the top of the fight card almost always trumps a great one by a mid-level fighter on the undercard, at least when it comes to UFC bonuses. Same goes for knockouts and the “Fight of the Night” award. That’s just the way it is, and probably the way it will stay. I agree that Jim Miller’s armbar win over Fabricio Camoes was craftier and more impressive than Ronda Rousey’s armbar on Miesha Tate. I also wasn’t surprised to see Miller miss out on the bonus check. If I’m Rousey, I might feel like I owe that man a steak dinner at the very least. Maybe she can even write it off as a business expense.

@benfowlkesMMA what do you see happening to josh barnett? Can he make a run at the title?

The good thing about being a heavyweight in the UFC is that you’re never more than a few consecutive wins away from a crack at the title. The bad thing is, with big men throwing murderous elbows at your head, you’re also never more than a well-aimed shot or two away from being knocked out. I wouldn’t rule out an eventual title shot for Josh Barnett, if only because things can still get weird in a hurry at heavyweight. At the same time, I also think his best chance at making that happen without the benefit of any unforeseen weirdness just evaporated with the knockout loss to Travis Browne on Saturday night.

@benfowlkesMMA If the content in UFC Fightpass stays largely the same come March, will you be subscribing?

First of all, this is my job, which means I get to expense stuff like a Fight Pass subscription or a UFC pay-per-view or a DVD of “Haywire” (actually, still waiting to get reimbursed on that last one … not sure what’s taking so long). So yeah, I’ll subscribe because it costs me nothing, and because I pretty much have to. For an MMA journalist, Fight Pass actually has the potential to be a great resource. Sometimes you need to go back and look at old fights, either to make sure you remember it correctly or to check on some detail you didn’t notice the first time, so it will be nice to have that option at the click of a button. Who was the first fighter to pick UFC matchmaker Joe Silva up and twirl him around in joyous celebration? I don’t know, let’s consult Fight Pass.

The problem is, I doubt the UFC started this thing with the goal of selling subscriptions to MMA writers and no one else. The UFC needs Guy P. Fightfan out there to sign up in order to make it viable, and it needs him to stay signed up. That’s why I think the lure of exclusive live events will only get Fight Pass so far. If that’s what I’m paying for, why would I maintain a subscription? Why wouldn’t I wait to see what the lineups look like for those events (and we all know how fight cards are subject to some serious change due to injuries and illnesses and the like), and then sign up at the last minute when I see one worth paying for? Then all the UFC has done is sold a cut-rate pay-per-view, and probably not that many of them.

That’s why I think Fight Pass has to succeed primarily on the strength of its archives. That’s what makes it “Netflix for the fight fan,” as Fertitta branded it. Like Netflix, which has its own original programming, the UFC can offer up live events from all over the globe as a bonus, but that probably won’t work as the main selling point. If I’m going to pay 10 bucks a month all year long, I’d better be able to type Mark Hunt vs. Wanderlei Silva into the search field and have the PRIDE music ringing in my ears within seconds.

@benfowlkesMMA with plenty of changes at the top in '13, which division excites you the most going into 2014? #tmb

Welterweight, because it’s wide open, and with plenty of hitters, as Nick Diaz would say. I don’t want to make it sound like GSP’s departure was a good thing for the UFC, since it will definitely miss having the “king of pay-per-view” around, but it does shake things up in that division. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the belt get passed around a few times in the next 12-18 months. For any other weight class, that might be a bad thing. At welterweight, and after years of St-Pierre dominance, it’s almost refreshing.

@benfowlkesMMA Shinya Aoki said no to the UFC. Does it affect him more or the fans?

I don’t know if there are a ton of people dying to see Shinya Aoki in the UFC these days. I feel like we got enough of a glimpse of how he’d do in the cage against North American fighters, and the answer is: not great. As for his decision to avoid the UFC in particular, that’s been his position for a long time. The man values his independence, and prefers being able to fight at home on the Asian scene to trying to become a superstar in the big show. That’s his choice, and I think you have to respect it. Plus, it’s not like the UFC doesn’t have plenty of talent in the lower weight classes as it is.

@benfowlkesMMA it feels like Matt Brown is going to get screwed over since Condit is fighting T-wood now, Any hope he gets a great opponent?

That’s the trouble with pulling out of a fight due to injury. The division moves on without you, and for all you know the window of opportunity might slam shut while you’re on the couch with the TV remote and a heating pad. Then again, what’s your other option? Fight hurt and get maimed even worse, after which no one will want to hear your injury excuse? Yeah, no thanks. I think Matt Brown will be fine as long as he waits until he’s really ready before jumping back into the fray. This is a time of real mobility in the welterweight division, and you don’t want to miss that. If you rush your return in an attempt to cash in, however, you might find yourself prematurely eliminated from the contender lottery.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie.com and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Follow him on Twitter at @BenFowlkesMMA. Twitter Mailbag appears every Thursday on MMAjunkie.

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